If you've noticed that your chainsaw just
isn't cutting like it used to or is pulling to one side
when you're cutting, then the blade probably needs a sharpen.
You can do it yourself, but there are
a few basics you need to know.
Now the first thing you want to do before you kick off
is to make sure that you have the right file
for your particular chainsaw.
If you're unsure of what size file to use,
just take your chainsaw down to Mitre 10,
and the good folks there will help you out.
Now, first thing we want to day is secure our blade
into our bench vice.
This is the ideal way of sharpening a chainsaw.
This is going to hold it really nice and strong for us
while we're moving that blade around.
Now don't overtighten it.
Just nice and snug in there.
Now you are going to need a pair of gloves
and some safety goggles when you do this.
You want to just make sure that the blade is
sitting in the there quite nice and tight.
Still be able to move it around though.
That's sitting in there pretty good.
Now the teeth on a chainsaw blade alternate from left
to right.
So we've got our teeth that are facing me
and then the teeth that are facing on the other side,
from left to right, left to right.
Before you start sharpening, you just
want to make sure that you start off with the teeth that
are facing you.
And you only want to file out.
Now just to help myself out, I'm just
going to mark that first tooth before I start sharpening it.
That way, when I get all the way around,
I know exactly when to stop.
Now I've got the correct size file for my chainsaw,
and I've got that sitting in a guide.
So I'm going to drop that carefully into my tooth.
I'm just going to follow the actual angle of the tooth.
Now that indicating by the marks on my guide,
says that that's 30 degrees.
So I'm just going to make sure I file
all those teeth at 30 degrees.
Now there's a couple of different reasons
that you should be sharpening your chainsaw.
Whether the blade is actually pretty blunt
or if it's just a maintenance sharpen.
Now maintenance sharpen is about two to three strokes
of your file after every tank of gas.
Now if it is pretty blunt, you could go up to about five
or six times.
But the main thing is that you give each tooth exactly
the same amount of strokes.
So when you're using your file, you just
want to make sure that the file is actually
90 degrees to your chainsaw bar, and also you're
sitting nice and level on the top.
And just to make sure that you're only always pushing
the file forward.
You don't ever want to drag that back.
So we'll just count.
Now that's three.
And then all I'm going to do is rotate the blade around
to face my next tooth.
Now you just want to make sure that you are only
doing the teeth that are actually facing you.
Rightio.
We're back to the beginning.
So you just want to do exactly the same for the other side.
Now there's two parts to the tooth.
There's the actual cutting edge, and then there's
the front leading edge, which is also known as the raker.
We want to make sure that the raker is not
sticking above the tooth.
Now the reason why that could happen
is from the tooth might have been sharpened too many times.
So we want to just put our depth gauge,
setting nice and gently, on our teeth.
Using our flat file, let's just file that off nice and flat.
Cool.
Now that's looking pretty sharp.
Now if you have filed your front raker a few times,
you might want to just take your flat file again and make sure
that that front raker is nice and round like it
was when you first bought it.
Now you want to look after your file, so if you don't have
a nice little case like this to keep them in,
what you can actually do, slip a drinking
straw over top of your file, and it's
going to keep them nice and safe.
And that's how it's done.
Now your chainsaw will cut like it's meant to.
Plus it will be a whole lot safer to use.